Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

cake and wine en · NOUN

Meanings

  1. (US, slang, uncountable) A restricted diet of bread and water, imposed as a disciplinary measure.
    • If one was 5 minutes late he got three days bread and water for a first offense. A second time got the culprit 5 days. Insolence and/or insubordination earned one a deck court-martial with 10 days on "cake and wine". 2009, Chester A. Wright, Black Men and Blue Water, page 222:
    • After a week of privation on pound cake and white wine (strangely the Navy's slang for solitary confinement on bread and water was "cake and wine") Carlsen received warm nourishment. 1980, The Compass, volumes 50-52, page 26:
    • […] and the skipper threw him in the brig for five days on cake and wine (bread and water, in navy slang). 2011, Stephen Curley, The Ship That Would Not Die:
  2. (uncountable) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cake, wine.